In the network functions virtualization orchestrator world, there are a number of different challenges. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology, in combination with Software Defined Networking (SDN), promises to help transform today's carrier networks. It will transform how carrier networks are deployed and managed, and the way services are delivered. The ultimate goal is to enable service providers to reduce costs, increase business agility, and accelerate the time to market of new services.
NFV decouples network functions from underlying hardware so they run as software images on commercial off-the-shelf and purpose-built hardware. The NFV does so by using standard virtualization technologies (compute, network, and storage) to virtualize the network functions. The objective is to reduce the dependence on dedicated, specialized physical devices by allocating and using the physical and virtual resources only when and where needed. With this approach, service providers can reduce overall costs by shifting more components to a common physical infrastructure while optimizing its use, allowing them to respond more dynamically to changing market demands by deploying new applications and services as needed. The virtualization of network functions also enables the acceleration of time to market for new services because it allows for a more automated and streamlined approach to service delivery.
Simple examples demonstrating the benefit of a NFV service are a virtualized firewall or a load balancer. Instead of installing and operating a dedicated appliance to perform the network function, NFV allows operators to simply load the software image on a virtual machine (VM) on demand. In a mobile network, examples include virtualizing the mobile packet core functions such as packet data network gateway (PGW), serving gateway (SGW), mobile management entity (MME), and other elements.
NFV decouples the network function from the hardware. However, extracting maximum value from NFV-based services requires new orchestration capabilities.
Traditional orchestration, in the broader context of service fulfillment, is the process of coordinating and aligning business and operational processes in designing, creating, and delivering a defined service. This orchestration process involves the use and management of complex systems and tools such as order, inventory, and resource management systems; configuration and provisioning tools; and operations support systems (OSSs) combined with the processes associated with these tools and systems. Orchestration solutions play a critical role for service providers by automating tasks across technologies and organizations by integrating with business support systems (BSSs) and customer-relationship-management (CRM) systems orchestration and by ultimately reducing order-to-revenue time.
There are a number of challenges to the network functions virtualization orchestration. For example, the provisioning, monitoring and recovery of virtual network functions (VNFs) is mostly monolithic and performed by a single host machine. Next, an auto scaling/healing decision of the VNFs is based on an if-else condition in code. Further, there is no one standard for exposing VNF KPI (Key performance index) data to the Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO). Finally, in the current status, there will be a network service downtime if a VNF or VNFs go down. In an NFV environment, the ability to maintain SLAs becomes even more complex due to the dynamic nature of the VNF and the underlying infrastructure. Hence the ability to predict and take action on network downtime becomes more critical.
In addition to the above issues, a network service can be composed of multiple VNFs from different vendors and spanning across multiple containers and virtual machines spawned on top of a variety of legacy hardware devices. This can result in a hybrid architecture. In a hybrid architecture, performing provisioning, recovery and meeting SLA requirements are difficult to meet. The system can have a difficult time making VNF scaling/healing decisions in an intelligent manner by taking a step beyond if-else conditions. Finally, in such a hybrid architecture described above in which data would be provided from such varying sources, it would be difficult to standardize or harmonize an approach of exposing VNF KPI (key performance index) data to an NFVO.